Hellboy: Odd Jobs
Hellboy: Odd Jobs is the first of four anthologies collecting non-chronological short stories written for the ''Hellboy'' novel series, based on the comic book series by Mike Mignola, who provided cover illustrations for each story. Contents ''Medusa's Revenge'' Written by Yvonne Navarro The disappearance of the residents of a village on a small Greek island leads Hellboy to investigate, suspecting that Medusa has somehow been resurrected. ''Jigsaw'' Written by Stephen R. Bissette A hospital orderly in Paris stumbles onto the preserved severed head of a heretic alchemist executed in the Middle Ages, which promises him wealth and power in exchange for small feedings of blood. ''A Mother Cries at Midnight'' Written by Philip Nutman In the late 1960s, Hellboy is called to his old stomping grounds at Los Alamos, New Mexico, where Trevor Bruttenholm's old colleague J. Robert Oppenheimer suspects a Navajo spirit of abducting a child from the base. ''Delivered'' Written by Greg Rucka Even Hellboy is not prepared for what he encounters in Manhattan: a man-sized rat, who speaks perfect English and offers to trade several rare occult books and artifacts to the Bureau. ''Folie á Deux'' Written by Nancy Holder 1967: After interviewing two traumatized American soldiers in a field hospital in Japan, Hellboy realizes that a Vietnamese shaman has summoned an ancient demon to drive out the soldiers invading his homeland. ''Demon Politics'' Written by Craig Shaw Gardner Hellboy is asked by his old friend Senator Lipton (formerly Commander Freedom) to investigate his suspicions that a demon has possessed someone high up in the U.S. Government. ''A Grim Fairy Tale'' Written by Nancy A. Collins The abductions of several New York City children makes the Bureau suspect a supernatural culprit, which Hellboy identifies as a Cailleach Bheur (Blue Hag), a fairy creature walking in plain sight among unsuspecting Manhattanites. ''Scared Crows'' Written by Rick Hautala and Jim Connolly While waiting in a bar for a midnight delivery, Hellboy regales a slightly-drunk young woman with the story of how he and a friend tracked down and killed a notorious serial killer... and then had to do so again when the killer's spirit possessed a local scarecrow. ''Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched'' Written by Chet Williamson Investigating the burnings of several branches of a fundamentalist church denomination in North Carolina, Hellboy starts to wonder if the church is actually a cover for Satanic activity. ''I Had Bigfoot's Baby! Written by Max Allan Collins A disappearance in an Iowa forest leads Hellboy and Abe Sapien to find out if there is anything to the legend of Bigfoot, or if it is just an elaborate hoax. ''The Nuckelavee Written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden Hellboy has to comfort an elderly Scottish patriarch, who has become convinced that he will die soon, and the Nuckelavee—a demonic creature that has always haunted his family—is coming to claim his soul. This is the only story in the collection which is canon. ''A Night at the Beach'' Written by Matthew J. Costello Hellboy tangles with a sea monster living underneath the roller coaster track at Coney Island. ''Burn, Baby, Burn'' Written by Poppy Z. Brite Liz Sherman tries, yet again, to leave the Bureau and find a place for herself elsewhere, with predictably tragic results. ''Far Flew the Boast of Him'' Written by Brian Hodge Investigating the gruesome murders of a troupe of medieval re-enactors in rural England, Hellboy encounters a living legend: the monster Grendel. Odd Jobs